People celebrating the Chinese New Year are expected to splurge up 45 billion baht during the festival, the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce said on Tuesday.
Thavath Phonwichai, director of the Economic and Business Forecasting Centre of the university, said this projection was based on a recent survey on planned spending during the lunar year celebration.
They sought opinions from 1,200 respondents.
He said responses indicated planned spending was up 12.3% from last year, the highest for eight years. This reflected signs of continuing economic expansion in the first quarter of the year on the back of the government’s stimulus measures, Mr Thanavath said.
Asked about their travel plans during the festival, 16.2% said they would visit various tourist destinations, but 83.8% had no plans for a trip.
For those planning to travel, 96.1% said they would visit attractions in Thailand, but the remaining 3.9% had their eyes on foreign countries.
Questioned about how much they planned to spend on this special occasion, 40.2% of the polled people said they would buy more than last year, 35% of them said it would be about the same and 20.6% would buy less.
A total 43.1% of the respondents agreed prices of New Year goods were up, 19.3% said the prices had increased sharply, but 35.7% believed the prices were about the same as last year.